Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Just a quick post this week. I haven't done nail art this week as I had a busy Bank Holiday weekend and just fancied doing something quick.

Having done some purple ombré nails the other week I came across colours that I knew were lurking in my nail polish bag, but hadn't been used in a while. I used Purple Pulse on my middle finger in the ombré and decided to come back to it this week as I missed it. It's a pinky purple, but it gets darker the more coats you apply.

This picture shows it more pinky than looking at it on my nails now. It's more of a light plum in reality, but I love it. I decided to spruce it up with an accent nail (because who doesn't love an accent nail when you don't have time for more!?). I have used Revlon 095 Facets of Fuchsia which is a gorgeous transparent smokey ﻿polish with large and small purple glitter flecks. I think it goes well with Purple Pulse and have used it on my ring finger and thumb. You can see them both below.

I'm not going to say that I am going to stop buying new colours because lets face it, it's just not going to happen, but I really need to make sure that I make the most of the pretty colours that I already have as well! What are your favourite Rimmel and Revlon polishes? Leave a comment to let me know, I'd love to see what other people have x﻿

Monday, 20 May 2013

I just have a quick post this week to show the new Models Own Splash Polish in Golden Shore. I haven't seen that many swatches of them yet, but I'm not sure people really know what to do with them. The whole of the Splash Polish collection is gorgeous to look at in the bottle with hand cut shards of glitter in a translucent coloured polish. I had my eye on Golden Shore right from the word go when the collection was announced, but I wasn't too sure about the others. I resisted and just got the one in the Bottleshop when they launched with the idea that I could always go back if I wanted others.

Despite there not being too many swatches about, well not that I have seen anyway, I wasn't sure where to start, so I thought I'd test some things out on some falsies first. I got an idea and went with that, liked how it turned out so I went with it.

﻿

I decided on a summer ombré finish to show off the shards of golden glitter. I started off with a base of white painted over the whole nail as I really wanted my colours to pop, and I also knew that this would be covered over by Golden Shore, creating the lightest orange later on. Using Models Own for the rest of my ombré, I sponged on Fuzzy Peach for my mid tone orange and then Pink Punch﻿ over the tips for my darkest shade. To smooth out the sponging I added a top coat. After this had dried I then added a coat of Golden Shore. I would describe it as a sticky polish, it's very thick and reminded me a little bit of jam. The glitter shards are quite tricky to evenly spread over the nail which I was a little surprised about as the Mirror Ball collection glitters are so simple to use for a great coverage in just one coat if you want. I had to work a little bit to get the glitter to stay on my nails, dabbing the brush in places to move it around rather than a lot right at the ends or in one large patch in the middle. I was going to add another coat, but at this stage Golden Shores had made my nails very thick with polish and I didn't really want to add anymore to them other than a top coat.

I ended up using two coats of top coat to stop the glitter being too bitty and sticking out all over my nails. It seems to have done the trick, but my finished nails are very thick with varnish and I worry about it cracking and smashing on my nails with the impact of my typing and everyday wear and tare. I will see how I go. Does anyone else get cracking or smashing in their polish when it's thick?

Overall, I am not disappointed that I got Golden Shore, but I don't think I will be getting the other Splash Polishes. This might become one that's 'perfect for toes!'. I do like my finished neon summer ombré and I think it looks a little bit like candy corn.

What do you think? I'd be interested to see what other people think about the Splash Polishes, leave a comment below to let me know x

Monday, 13 May 2013

This weekend saw some more nail vanish purchases as you may have seen from my Twitter or Facebook page. I couldn't resist the Models Own Bottleshop and the launch of the new Splash Polishes. I had my eye on Golden Shore since I had seen the press pictures of the Splash Polish collection. I was lucky enough to pick out a 'prize' ticket in the lucky dip at the Bottleshop at got a make up bag with attached mirror. I also got a Sinful Colours polish in Nail Junkie.

﻿

I decided to use my Sinful Colours polish for my design this week, but I have something in mind for Golden Shore next week.

I wanted to have a go at a tape manicure with the colour peeping through and I thought Nail Junkie was perfect for this. I was originally going to do the taping on all my nails, but I wanted to let the glitter shine away, so opted to just do my thumb nail and ring finger.

To create this look I first painted all my nails with my base colour and left it to dry. I added a top coat over this to smooth it out as the glitter is quite chunky and gritty. After this had dried I added four strips of nail tape across each of my accent nails and painted over the strips in a coat of black polish. Before this is dry you lift the tape away from the nails following the pattern that you have stuck the tape in. I used tweezers to add and remove the tape as it can be quite fiddly otherwise. I finished off with a top coat to protect my design.

I think I did well for my first go at a tape manicure where you remove the tape, I'll have to try some different colour and pattern combinations in the future as it was a lot of fun to do. I'd love to see your tape manicures if you have had a go, leave a link in the comments so I can take a look.

This week I am very excited as tomorrow is the day I will be in Look magazine - I'll be itching to get away from work as quickly as possible so I can go and get my copy x﻿

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

I went for a 'Pinspired' manicure this week from Pinterest. I have been seeing lots of pretty designs and thought that I would give one a go.

I have the gorgeous For Audrey from China glaze and having done a couple of different Tiffany & Co. designs with it, I was searching for something else to use it for. I spotted Turquoise Stone nails and they were just perfect! I saw them done a few different ways but here is the pin that I got my main idea from.

Now I don't know about you, but I hate cling film! It clings to everything that it's not meant to and nothing that it is; mainly itself which is very frustrating! This is the perfect revenge for cling film though as you just lightly screw some up and use it to dab on the colour. I just dabbed the cling film into black polish from Revlon and removed the excess on a scrap of paper and then dabbed it all over my nails. You can see the steps on the pin that I followed, but I didn't copy it like for like as I wanted to add my own touch. I also thought that painting on the thin lines might look too overdone.

I had seen some other pins that did the dabbing of colour with gold polish instead, so I thought that I would add a little bit of gold as well. After the black had dried I dabbed Models Own Bora Bora over all of my nails using the cling film as before. This added a slight sparkle like you can see in turquoise stones.

Before I was lucky enough to get China Glaze For Audrey I had tried some other polishes as dupes for the colour.

Here you can see China Glaze For Audrey﻿, Orly Gumdrop and Marks and Spencer Duck Egg. Duck Egg was the first one that I had and whilst I love the polish as you can see from how much has been used, it's not the best dupe for For Audrey. It's much lighter and very shimmery. I was bought this when looking for dupes and it seemed right at the time until looking at pictures afterwards. I must say that if you are looking for a light pretty blue/green I would recommend Duck Egg as it's just lovely. Having then searched online for dupes I found Orly Gumdrop. It's a really good dupe if you can't get your hands on China Glaze. As you can see it is slightly lighter, but it's not at all bad. Have you found any good dupes for this or other colours?

I'm really pleased with the finished effect of my turquoise stone nails. What do you think? Are you on Pinterest? Have you tried any designs from there?